People once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes, something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can’t rest. Then sometimes, just sometimes, the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right.

Table/Prompt: Movies/The Crow

Comments: Written for the

mission_insane challenge, my table is here. I REALLY liked writing Kaoru as the Skull Cowboy, and as much as I think this could have easily been a series and not a lengthy one shot sadly I don't have the time to do that...but let me know what you think as this has actually been in my head for a while and mission_insane only gave me the excuse to actually write it.
I absolutely LOVE James O' Barr, and the Crow series. So I'm interested in what other Crow fans might say. :D The original Crow movie is an absolute favorite of mine.

Devil’s Night

Shinya steps across the cobblestone path to cross the graveyard. The black sky hangs above him pregnant with the impending rain. Sirens can be heard in the distance. Shinya’s dirty sneakers leave the path and pad across the dried out grass towards a grave.

Hara Toshimasa

Shinya sighs and lays a large bouquet of flowers on Toshiya’s grave. Sighing he thinks back to the year past since his friend was found deceased and Die had gone missing. “I’ve missed you Totchi, and I can’t find Die,” he whimpers. The rain finally breaks out above him and he turns to run for shelter. His run carries him across the street and into a donut shop where a police uniform sat at the counter with a cup of coffee.

“Kyo…” Shinya called as he sat next to the cop. “I see you’re stopping for donuts again.”

“Just coffee,” Kyo shrugged. “Get whatever you like. Something rare; it’s on me.” Shinya orders himself a coffee from the waitress and starts to mix cream and sugar into it.

“I see you remembered,” Shinya sighed.

“I could never forget.” Kyo took another sip of his coffee. “Look, Shinya. Keep yourself busy the next few days will ya? I’m going to be running all over hell and back trying to keep everything in order and you know how grotesque things get in this city ’bout this time of year. I don’t want to be drawing your outline in chalk just yet. I know you think I’ve forgotten about Die, but I haven’t and I promise you I will find him. Just promise me you will stay home during Halloween.”

“I promise,” Shinya lied.

Across the city a crow lands on a dock pillar. The weather seems to bother him not and he begins tapping on the wood at his feet. The water stirs below as someone swims to the surface. A redhead bobs above the water desperately, gasping for breath like a drowned man. Weakly he manages to make his way to the water’s edge and pull himself out. He rolls over onto his back and stares up at the sky bleakly under the weight of his heaving chest.

The crow stares at him, cocking his head to the side.

Footsteps creep up next to the man, and he looks up to see a figure. Not particularly tall in stature but menacing none the less. His jaw bones jut out framing his nearly hallow eyes, long dark hair framed his face. He wore a long trench coat and stuffed one hand in his pocket, he used the other to adjust his cowboy hat. He seemed other worldly.

“Daisuke…” The skull cowboy called with a deep gravelly voice.

Die shrunk back in fright, crawling backwards away from the man. “Who are you?” he demanded shakily.

“Kaoru,” came his name with the tip of a hat. “Some call me the reaper.”

“What do you want?!” Die screamed back at him in confusion. “Where is Toshiya…I can’t remember. What the hell is happening?!”

The crow cawed from his post on the pillar before taking flight and landing on top of Kaoru’s shoulder. The skull cowboy stepped forward, frightening Die, as he reached out and placed a firm skeleton hand on Die’s forehead. The redhead shrieked in pain as memories began to flash through him.

“Die!” Toshiya called from behind his bass, “Die, stop messing up your solo! We got a show to do!”

A different day, Die and Toshiya are cuddled up in a hotel room somewhere. Toshiya’s fallen asleep and his serene face bores through his memory.

Another memory; Die’s yelling at Toshiya, but Toshiya is feeling resolute. “Look, this is the only way I could make sure we were taken care of. It’s just a little money Die; I’ll pay it back…”

“But Toshiya, YAKUZA?!” Die screams back. “Do you have any idea how much danger you are putting yourself in?”

Die stumbles away from Kaoru’s hand, holding his head in pain and screaming. “It hurts! You’re hurting me! Where is Toshiya?!”

Kaoru nods to the crow on his shoulder, ”Just follow him. He’s your eyes and ears from now on.”

It’s called the “Soap Box”. Heavy club music pounds through Shinya’s ears as he takes a grip of the pole center stage yet again. His blonde hair falls past his shoulders and obscures most of eyes. His hips shake back and forth to the beat. Every so often he reaches down and grabs money off of the edges of the stage. In his peripheral vision he can spy Boss giving him the “lazer eye.”

Shinya turns and backs himself down onto his heels, hiking up his skirt and baring his ass to the hoots and hollers of the crowd around him. Boss looks a little more appeased, the rather exotic looking dancer on his arm draws out lines of coke on the table. Boss is flicking the end of a syringe. Shinya turned his head away. Tonight wasn’t going to go so well after all. Here he thought he might get away with so little as making his money and going home.

Shinya’s exited the stage and is traipsing down a back hallway. He hopes to go unnoticed but Boss peels around the corner and grabs his shoulders fiercely pinning him up against the wall.

So much for that.

His vision reels off to the side as he finds himself being groped by Boss. A weary looking framed picture still hangs on the wall from over a year past. It was back when the club actually had bands and not dancers, and less seedy people weren’t afraid to go there. Toshiya and Die’s faces smile back at them from behind their instruments.

If only… things were like they were before.

Die finds himself standing before a warehouse. He had tried to go back to what he could remember as home, but other people seemed to live there these days. The warehouse, there was something familiar about it though. The crow had led him straight to it. It took some getting used to but the Skull Cowboy was right. He discovered that he could use the bird’s eyes and ears.

Slowly he walks up to the side of the building and gingerly puts his hand on the side of the building. His teeth grit, in anticipation and a flood of memories tip their way through his synapses again. Nothing prepared him for what he was about to see.

“Where is Toshiya?!” Die screamed at the man driving the car. Boss had appeared at their apartment out of nowhere. Toshiya had already been missing for several days, and Die knew. He just knew that this had to be something to do with the money Toshiya had borrowed to get their music distributed. Now Boss was driving recklessly down the street and Die had no choice but to go with him. The man was pointing a gun at him and he had to find Toshiya.

“Where is my money?!” Boss shouted.

Die collapses on the side of the warehouse building, his hand still against the wall. The crow eyes him as he cries out in pain. The rest comes in a burst of flashes.

In the first; Die is thrown against the ground of the warehouse. His vision travels across the tile to find Toshiya, his body in shambles and completely covered in blood. His eyes glazed over but his lips still trembling. He’s still alive. Momentarily. Die screams gutturally, unable to do anything, as a pistol is put against his temple and the bullet fires with a loud bang. “Totchi!” he continues shrieking in agony as blood pools beneath his lover’s head and sprawls across the concrete.

Another; they kick and pound him. His injuries prevent him from going anywhere but he kicks and screams the best he could. It does nothing to prevent them. Boss comes and sits down on his legs; plunging a serrated knife into his abdomen over, and over, and over…the wet warmth spreads sickly across his skin. His vision starts to go black.

The crows vision; a body plunges into the water. It’s weighed down and slowly sinks. Die’s read hair wafts in the waves illuminated by the stray beams of streetlight. His arms trail above his head as if reaching for the sky. His serene and death stricken face sinks into the darkness.

Another; A car speeds through trash filled alley. The brake lights blare as the wheels screech to a stop. The door falls open and Toshiya’s limp body is tossed from the backseat of the car. As the vehicle speeds off Shinya looks up from several feet away where he stood at the back door of the Soap Box. His face distorts as he begins to recognize what he is seeing.

Die screams bitterly, his cry echoing through the silence. The crow caws and shifts from claw to claw.

Shinya walks down the street, back in sloppy jeans and dirty sneakers. His hair still falls around his face; hiding it. He clutches his coat close to his body and makes his way home. Graphitized walls blur beside him. He looks up as he see’s somebody approaching. In the dark the figure looks menacing so Shinya ducked down the path back into the cemetery in hopes to avoid any further trouble for the day. The rain still fell in sheets, and the full moon illuminated the graveyard perfectly. Before he realized it, he was back before Toshiya’s grave again. He paused when he realized that there were flesh flowers there other than his own.

“Die, I know you’re here. I miss you. You were good people in this dark thicket. Toshiya, with you here I really thought you cared.” Shinya sighed. A shadow appeared from behind him.

“Shinya, I do care.” Die told him softly.

Slowly, with the lump caught in his throat Shinya turned around. Die’s ghostly figure stood before him clad in black leather. His skin glowed with an inhuman paleness and black lines his eyes and lips sharply. Like a crow. “Die…” Shinya cried as he rushed into Die’s arms. “You’re here…where have you been?”

Slowly Die’s hand comes to rest on the top of Shinya’s head. He smiles weakly. “Hell. I think I’ve been in hell, and now I’m back.”

“Will you stay?” Shinya asked him.

“I can’t stay. I have to find Toshiya. The only way I could do that is to exact revenge.”

“Who did this Die? Kyo never found out…”

“They are still around here. They’re already dead. They were dead the moment they touched him. They just don’t know it yet.”

Shinya turned to look back on Toshiya’s grave. When a question dawned on him he turned back to Die, who was already gone.

Halloween

Kyo stops by in the coffee shop momentarily, but Shinya isn’t there. He’s really happy about that. Maybe he’s at home then. He continues patrolling down the street. Halloween has been its usual discourse for the year. Already he’s been to several arson calls, a few domestic disputes, and a murder. The murder was strangely grizzly though. Some yakuza member found himself impaled in his own front yard. They found blood spattered on the wall in the shape of a bird. Strange.

Kyo heard a strange sound as he crossed the walkway in front of an alleyway. Quickly he spins around with his hand on his weapon and heads into the alley. Towards the end near a burning trash bin stands a man in a long leather jacket with his back to him. Kyo raises his weapon and shouts, “Put your hands up where I can see them! Put them up!”

Slowly the figure puts his hands in the air, and turns around.

Kyo’s jaw drops. The stench of burning flesh hits his nose. The same bird picture is spray painted on the side of the trash bin. The man looks strangely familiar. Somewhere beneath the makeup Kyo starts to recognize him.

“Die…”

Die doesn’t move; he remains with his hands in the air as Kyo processes the information.

“Die we all thought you were dead…” Kyo continues.

Die starts to step towards Kyo with his hands till in the air. Suddenly it hits Kyo; the stench. “Oh god, you killed that man…don’t take another step. Don’t move! Don’t move I say!”

“I’m a cop and I said don’t move!” Kyo shouts. “Move and you are dead!”

“What if I were to tell you,” Die smirks. “That I am dead, and I move?” Die resumes his steps towards Kyo.

Shakily, and scared Kyo fires his gun and a bullet lodges into Die’s chest. The hole heals up as quickly as it’s created. Only a hole in his clothing remains. Kyo’s eyes fly wide in surprise.

“You are not what I am after, do not worry so much.” Die tells him as he steps closer to Kyo. “There is something I need though, he places his hands on top of Kyo’s head and braces himself for another flashback.

Kyo slowly steps across the alleyway crime scene. Shinya cowers in the door frame for the club, shivering. His face is full of tears and Kyo couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. He passes a tissue to Shinya, who takes it and dabs at his eyes. Workers are everywhere, and yellow tape blocks off both ends of the alleyway. One of the crew members shouts, “He’s still alive…can you believe this shit?”

“Get him in a bus!” Kyo shouts and he boards Shinya with him. They race through the festering streets to the emergency room.

“How is he even alive, what is he waiting for?” Shinya whimpers and Kyo wraps his arm around him. “He must be in so much pain.”

Days later, when they pronounced him brain dead and finally pulled the plug Shinya had later told him. “Maybe he’s waiting for Die. Where on earth is he?”

Die releases his grip on Kyo and nods as he turns to leave. “Thank you.”

“What on earth for?” Kyo shrugs. “I was just doing my job.”

“For being with the both of them.”

Kyo went to ask him about the burning body, but Die was already gone.

Hours later Die stands on the rooftop adjacent to the Soap Box. He perches on the edge of the building. The crow sits on one of his shoulders and tells him silently about the features below. Suddenly a figure is behind him and Die pivots around. The skull cowboy stands there again. Kaoru shakes his head. “The path is before you. What do you wait for?”

“I want to wait until Shinya leaves so that he will be safe. Sadly, it seems that his life hasn’t gotten any better since we died.”

“Your job isn’t to work for the living.” Kaoru shouts sternly. “I thought I could…and look what happened to me…do you want to spend eternity alone?”

“Fine, make your choice. See what happens. When immortality is stripped from you, and you cannot take your vengeance…and Toshiya is stripped from you yet again… see if the crow believes in second chances then.” In a sudden flash the skull cowboy collapses into a cloud of ash. The crow caws from Die’s shoulder sadly. Kaoru is gone, and Die doesn’t expect to see him again. He just managed to make the god of death angry.

Die takes a running leap and crosses the sky towards the Soap Box.

Several stories below Shinya took the stage yet again. His legs are covered with vinyl thigh-high boots. His body wrapped in a short body hugging dress of the same material. As always, he fails to show his face as he moves about the stage. Boss sits in the corner drugging himself up on heroin. The club is rather full on this holiday evening. The bass thumps in his ears. Suddenly the patrons start screaming in horror and tripping over themselves to get away. Shinya slowly turns around to see Die stepping down the runway, a bloody corpse dragging behind him.

“Die…”

A cold steel presses to his temple and Boss is immediately on him, shouting at Die and dragging Shinya out the room and towards the back stairs. Shinya cries out as his hair is yanked back. Die starts to look really, fucking, angry. There isn’t anything he can do though, mob members pour into the room and he has to rid of them before he can go after Shinya.

Kyo races through the city streets at the report of a murder at the Soap Box. He hoped with everything he had that Shinya hadn’t got him self dragged in there for the night. His squad car skids to a halt in the alleyway alongside the club where he had been to find Toshiya only a year prior. He bursts through the door to find a spray of blood across the club walls, and bodies cast everywhere. In the corner Die tries to fight off the sole survivor vainly, but he’s losing his strength.

BAM!

The mobster topples over and Die stands up slowly.

“I hope you aren’t here to try and arrest me again,” Die says to him. “I have to go rescue Shinya first anyway.”

“Shinya…” Kyo lowers his gun. “I’ll back you up.”

“No,” Die shakes his head. “I need you down here so Shinya has somebody to get him out of here when I send him back down the stairs. I need you to make sure nobody comes down the stairs.”

Kyo nods, “Why are you bleeding?”

Die looks down at his chest and notices the blood strains traveling across him. His own, not the other’s, earned in the previous scuffle. “It seems that I haven’t been playing by the rules.”

A few stories above the two of them Boss drags Shinya into a room and throws him down on the couch. Shinya knows Boss is clearly out of his mind and doped up on drugs again. Maybe he ‘s forgotten all about that sinister little clown because he’s taken to stripping off his clothes and Shinya starts to brace for the worst. Boss sets his drugs on the small table before he starts pushing up the edges of Shinya’s skirt until his underwear is visible. Shinya shrieks in disgust.

T he door breaks open and Boss turns to see Die, walking through the frame.

“Nevermore…“ Die bellows at him sternly.

“What in the fuck, you fucking freak…”

“Didn’t you hear me knocking? A tapping? A rat-tat-tapping! Quothe the raven…nevermore…” Die continues as he grabs Boss by the wrists; pushing him back onto the couch as Shinya scrambles out of the way. Die turns to Shinya and screams at him to get out of there before he turns back to Boss with his full intent. Shinya flies out the door, and down the stairs. The sounds of Boss’s screams echoing behind him.

“What the fuck is your problem, man?” Boss shouts angrily.

Die pushes his hand down onto Boss’s forehead. Boss starts screaming in pain as Die bears down on him. “You know what I’m giving you right now? Every ounce of pain that Toshiya felt when you took him, when you assaulted him, when you shot him, when he lied left for dead in that alley, when he struggled through hours of torture in a hospital bed. Every ounce, you sick motherfucker…”

Boss starts vibrating and gurgling under Die’s touch, he screams as unimaginable pain wracks his body. Die lets go and turns to the small table. He grabs the syringe and heroin bottle, and loads it up with every last drop.

“Rest in pieces.” Die salutes him gravely as he plunges the needle straight into his heart and unloads the full contents directly into his body.

Sunrise

Shinya eases Die along the path towards Toshiya’s grave. They walk slowly, as Die slowly succumbs to his injuries. The crow slowly trails behind them, until they get close. Then the bird situates himself on top of Toshiya’s grave. Die turns to Shinya and smiles. “Thank you, not exactly at my strongest these days…”

“What happens now?” Shinya asks him.

“I have no idea, but if you could…I would really like to be alone.”

“I’m going to miss you.”

“I’m not going anywhere. If this is possible, is it not possible that we will see each other again? That you too will see Toshiya again?”

“It’s raining again,” Shinya tisks as he sets Die down on top of Toshiya’s grave.

Die’s face broke out into a weak smile. “It can’t rain all the time.”

Shinya turns to leave, traveling across the street to meet Kyo for what would be a rather somber customary cup of coffee. Kyo’s already waiting at the counter in his usual seat. He motions to Shinya, “I guess I pay again - right?” Shinya nods and stirs cream and sugar into the cup that the waitress brings. Kyo asks him, “So, did he find Toshiya?”

“I don’t know. I’d like to think so.”

A few days later when Kyo and Shinya both went to visit Toshiya’s grave, the sun was actually shining. They both brought flowers, and as Shinya leaned leaned down to place them on the grave he noticed something different.